Mountain
...the mountains will imbue the advanced student with cosmic strength and will hold steadily before him the thought of the Mount of Initiation which he aims soon to tread. LOM 314
Initiation leads to the mount whence vision can be had, a vision of the eternal Now, wherein past, present, and future exist as one.... IHS 13
Until the highest point of the Mount of Initiation has been climbed, it is not possible to vision the Promised Land as it is. WM 605
This polarization, this point of focused effort and this attained orientation is the basic idea lying behind the phrase "the Mountain of Initiation." The initiate "plants his feet upon the mountain top and from that point of altitude perceives the thought of God, visions the dream within the Mind of God, follows God's eye from central point to outer goal and sees himself as all that is and yet within the whole." DNA2 261
...two main lines of thought are emerging--one doomed eventually to die out, the other to strengthen and grow until it, in its turn, gives birth to that (for us) ultimate formulation of truth which will suffice for the next age and carry man to a high pinnacle of the Temple to the Mount of Initiation. WM 327-328
These three major initiations, the first, the third and the fifth, constitute the three syllables of the Word made flesh; they embody the musical chord of Christ's life, as they will be embodied in the life of all who follow in His steps. Through re-orientation to new modes of living and of being we pass through the necessary stages of adaptation of the vehicles of life, up to that mountaintop where the divine in us is revealed in all its beauty. BC 137
But bear equally in mind that after the valley is crossed (for all aspirants and for all truly spiritual groups) the Mount of Initiation is seen and ascended; after obscuration succeeds the vision, and after night comes the day. WM 341
And so, from stage to stage the disciple passes, going from light to light, from perception to perception, from force to energy, from personality focus to soul integration and, then, from soul to spirit, from form to life. He has explored all the avenues of knowledge; he has descended into the depths, into hell and into the valleys; he has climbed the mountain top of initiation and from there has swung out beyond space and time; he has lost all self-interest and is a focused point of thought in the mind of God. DNA2 772-773
These culminating years of your life have been years of great difficulty and much pain--not only for yourself but for others. They have been years wherein everything has been wrested from you, leaving you upon that "pinnacle of loneliness" about which I spoke to your brother, W.D.S., in my instruction to him last year. I would have you regard that pinnacle as an exalted place from which the new vision can be seen. That pinnacle can be turned into a mount of initiation. DNA2 652
By this I mean that, as man translates his ideals into words and acts, he brings about transformation, transmutation and eventually translation upon the mountain top of Initiation. EA 398
But the illumined intuition, with its power to synthesize (which is the emerging characteristic of the disciples and initiates under training), can and does lead them into a measured sequence of expansions of consciousness which eventually land them at last on the summit of the Mount of Transfiguration. From that eminence the disciple can gain the vision which will enable him to see the whole scheme in a moment of time, and to share with Arjuna the experience of the Gita wherein he "saw all forms gathered together in the body of that God of Gods." He can descend from that mountain with his personality transfigured and radiant. EP1 153-154
It is the rare and developed soul which has climbed the Mountain of Transfiguration, and there seen and met with God in the glorified Person of Jesus Christ. We have looked on at this episode through the eyes of others. Peter and James and John, through another apostle, Matthew, have told us about it. We remain as onlookers, but it is an experience in which we shall some day share. This we have forgotten. We have taken to ourselves the language of the fourth great event in Christ's life, and many of us have attempted to share and enter into the meaning of the Crucifixion. We have looked on at the Transfiguration, but have not attempted to become actively transfigured. But that must some day happen to us, and only after the Transfiguration can we dare to climb Mount Golgotha. Only when we have achieved expression of divinity in and through the lower personal nature shall we have attained to that of worth and value which can be permitted, under the divine Plan, to be crucified. This is a forgotten truth. Yet it is all part of the evolutionary process whereby God is revealed through humanity. BC 158
Will this Taurian influence, increased as it is by the incoming Shamballa forces, produce the floodlight of illumination of which Taurus is the custodian, or will it simply foment desire, increase selfishness and bring humanity to the "fiery heights of self-interest" instead of to the mountain of vision and initiation? EA 374
Pisces and Capricorn in unison bring about those changes which "lift the disciple out of the waters, wherein he is rapidly drowning, on to the mountain top from whence he can watch the recession of the waters. Thus does he know himself initiate." EA 438
The "returning arrow of the intuition," as it is sometimes called. For it is the shaft of the arrow of aspiration which returns to the sender as the arrow of the intuition. Sagittarius is one of the intuitive signs, for only the intuition will suffice to carry a man to the foot of the mountain of initiation in Capricorn. EA 177
In Sagittarius, the intellect which has been developed, used and finally illumined, becomes sensitive to a still higher type of mental experience and to this we give the name of intuitive perception. There come flashes of light upon problems; a distant yet possible vision of attainment is seen; the man begins to climb out of the depths to which he has descended in Scorpio and sees ahead of him the mountain in Capricorn which he knows he must eventually climb....
In Capricorn, the initiate learns to realize the meaning of the growing light which greets his progress as he climbs upward to the mountain top. The flashes of intuition with which he is becoming familiar change into the blazing and constant light of the soul, irradiating the mind and providing that point of fusion which must ever be the "fusion of the two lights, the greater and the lesser light" to which I referred in A Treatise on White Magic. The light of the personality and the light of the soul blend. Upon this I need not enlarge, as nothing I could say would be more than it now is--the theory of initiation. This takes place upon the Path of Initiation and is called the experience of the mountain top. EA 180-181
Capricorn.--The Light of Initiation. This is the light which clears the way to the mountain top, and produces transfiguration, thus revealing the rising sun. EA 330
It has been occultly said that a vision of these powers and their many weaving lines (seen as rivers and streams of light) is given to the initiate from the mountain top of Capricorn, once that summit has been reached. It is at the Transfiguration initiation that this vision appears before the eyes of the astounded disciple. The great experiences upon the various mountain tops as related in the Bible have all to do with Capricorn. Moses, the Lawgiver on Mount Sinai, is Saturn in Capricorn imposing the law of karma upon the people. A clue to the significance of the Jewish people as a karmic clearing house can be found here. Ponder on those words "a karmic clearing house." The Mount of Transfiguration in the New Testament is Venus in Capricorn when love and mind and will meet in the person of the Christ, and "He was transfigured" before all men. EA 167
Capricorn connotes density, firm foundations, concretization, the mountain of karma that holds down the struggling soul or the mountain of initiation which must eventually be climbed and surmounted....In this particular world cycle it is Capricorn which is producing the moment of crisis--a crisis of initiation plus a crisis of destruction (related primarily to the mineral kingdom) paralleled by a crisis of mental perception, precipitated by Mercury. It is this mental perception plus world participation in the "crumbling of the mountain load of karma" which heralds the vision of the new day from the top of the mountain. EA 435-437
Capricorn rules the knees and this is symbolically true, for only when the Capricornian subject learns to kneel in all humility and with his knees upon the rocky mountain top to offer his heart and life to the soul and to human service, can he be permitted to pass through the door of initiation and be entrusted with the secrets of life. Only on his knees can he go through that door. As long as he arrogantly stands where he has not earned the right to stand, he can never safely be given the information which is imparted to all true initiates. The ancient mode of pilgrimage in India, by which the devotee passed or progressed from one holy place to another upon his knees, is indicative of this deep need of the Capricornian for humility. India is ruled by Capricorn and India knows this truth. Though India has permitted the physical act to usurp the place of a spiritual attitude, yet the symbolic meaning is eternally true. When the man born in Capricorn can kneel in spirit and in truth, he is then ready for the initiatory process upon the mountain top. EA 169-170
Capricorn is ever the sign of conclusion, and of this the mountain top is frequently (though not always) the symbol, for it marks the point beyond which further ascent in any particular life cycle is not possible. Capricorn is, therefore, the sign of what has been called esoterically "periodic arresting." Progress becomes impossible under the existing forms, and there has to be the descent into the valley of pain, despair and death before a fresh attempt to scale the heights takes place. EA 158
In the next great and succeeding race to this, Capricorn will appear as ruling the egoic expression, for the soul will then be in greater control and certain great groups of human beings (those who now compose the present nations) will be ready for initiation upon the mountain top of Capricorn. DN 69
The Christ or spiritual man can stand upon the mountain of ascension, having passed through the four crises or points of control from the birth to the crucifixion. LS 332
On the mountaintop of Ascension, following the experience of "teaching the spirits which are in prison," the Master receives a revelation; this is His right and due and something for which the long previous cycle of initiation has prepared Him. RI 713
Having renounced the three worlds, and having returned--back from a contact of great importance and interest--to those three worlds and with all that is familiar in them, the initiate suddenly realizes that he has indeed been liberated, that he is indeed free, that he has been raised out of darkness and is now free in a new world of experiences. He knows that he has climbed to the mountaintop or has "ascended" to the buddhic plane, from which plane he must permanently work and not just occasionally, as has been the method hitherto. RI 704-705
The Master, standing symbolically upon the Mount of Ascension, is equipped with a full realization of the past, with a sound appreciation of what He has to offer to the service of humanity, and with a sense of expectancy. During the preceding cycle of lives of initiatory service to humanity, He has several times heard "the Voice of the Father." This is a symbolical phrase, indicating contact with that aspect of himself which was responsible for the appearance of his soul and for its long long cycle of incarnation: the Monad, the Spirit, the One, the Life, the Father. Each time that that Voice spoke, it gave him recognition. It is in reality the voice of the Initiator in Whom we live and move and have our being. RI 706
I would like to point out that the distinction between the "sheep and the goats" is mainly hierarchical. The term "goats" is esoterically applied to initiated disciples and to those who have climbed the mountain of initiation. The term "sheep" is applied to those who are following blindly the inner urge of their souls and who are groping their way (in relatively large numbers) toward the Hierarchy. For them still has to come the great revelation that the "kingdom of God is within you." Such is the word for them at this stage in humanity's history. Once they have realized that, they are already being absorbed into the Hierarchy. Life will now for them simplify. For the "goats" must come the impelling call from the highest aspect of the Spiritual Triad, "Seek the way of Ascension"--ascension out of even triadal life into that of pure Being and of monadic existence. DNA2 62
You will note the relation (if you call it no more than that) between the two phrases "points of revelation" and "mountain of initiation." In the Old Commentary, these are brought together in a very illumined statement--illuminating if duly reflected upon:
"The disciple climbs the mountain, its five peaks illumined by the Sun and hiding the other two.
From point to point he goes and the Way moves upward all the time--out of the dark into the light, from the jungle to the open space, from night to dawn.
From point to point he moves and at each point he gets new revelation. Five are the mountain peaks, and as he mounts towards each peak he receives five times the light. Five to the five and so from five to five till five fives have brought him light. Ten lie ahead, but these concern him not as yet."